Questioning Fate
by Kaylinwish
Summary: “Destiny is something we've invented because we can't stand the fact that everything that happens is accidental”


**Title:** Questioning Fate  
**Author:** kaylinwish  
**Characters:** George, Daisy (gen)  
**Genres:** emo, gen  
**Rating:** TV-14  
**Warnings:** Post S2, but no references.  
**Summary:** Response to LJ Comm Prompt #9: Destiny.  
**Word Count:** 749

I didn't expect Georgia to think very hard about what we're doing here. I've had more than seventy years and I've just finally figured it out. But no, in the quiet of our home and in the dark of night, she asks me things. Things she'd never ask Rube. She still fears him. And she couldn't carry on a conversation of these sorts with Mason. Roxy would likely shoot her before allowing her to consider reasons for why Reapers exist.

Regardless, I'm sitting up late drinking my martini and watching 'Some Like It Hot' on the television when she comes downstairs in her pajamas and sits rather ungracefully beside me.

"The TV's too loud," she mumbles, but we both know that is not the case. She's been thinking about it again.

I don't respond, because she's always the one to initiate the conversation about reaping. She's a kid still, wanting to know why and how and what. She'll learn some day to just stop asking questions and accepting that this is the way it is.

"You still never answered my question, Daisy," she finally announces, turning away from the glow of the television to see my response. Ever the actress, I feign ignorance.

"I fail to remember the question."

"We were talking about reaping last week. I asked what you thought about this being our destiny. You just started eating your eggs like I hadn't said a fucking thing."

I take a sip of my martini to buy me some time. She really needs to stop wondering about every little detail to our job. And Rube just had to tell her it was her destiny, 'so stop fucking thinking about it'.

"I think talking about 'destiny' is a dangerous thing, Georgia. You end up talking philosophy and religion, and I don't much like discussing either. But I don't believe anything is written in stone. There's a reason things are, obviously. We have to do this, just like there must be garbage men and taxi drivers. We're a part of a functioning society.

"But did it have to be _you_ that became a Reaper? Maybe. No one knows their quota. Maybe if you had sidestepped the toilet seat you could've lived another day. Maybe you could have lived till you were forty or fifty. You could have lived your whole life only to become a reaper then. Maybe this was what you were going to be after you died, and maybe the same for me. Perhaps you're telling yourself you don't think you were supposed to be this, because it makes it a little more bearable. But the idea of destiny certainly restricts the idea of freedom. And I like to believe that we have a bit of say in what we do."

"We have no say at all! We get post-its and have to help others go to the other side while we're stuck here!"

"I am certainly not stuck. And neither are you. Your friend Betty – what if she went to the other side? You don't know what happened to her. She made a choice and followed it to the end. You have made the choice to stay. So stop whining about it."

She gives a big sigh, for nothing she does is ever ladylike.

"I rather like it here. We get all the benefits of living, but none of the hassles. Our bodies will always work, we can't hurt ourselves, and we can still enjoy the little things like an evening drink."

She's silent for a while. Maybe she's getting into the movie.

"She wanted to stir things up. I want to, too. I just don't know how."

She sounds lost. I glance over; she's looking through the television.

"There's no one stopping you. There's no one here you're sticking around for, is there?"

"Reggie."

"Your little sister has a destiny of her own. You can't keep steering her in the direction you want her to go."

She glares at me, I think because she knows I'm right.

"I should have died three years ago."

"And you did. Now you get another chance to live." I'm smiling, hoping she doesn't realize I lost control of my voice at the end of that. Sure it's hard living this life. She just reaped a little kid today, and that's hard on all of us. But none of us have grabbed our new life by the horns. We're all still in transit, hoping 'Destiny' will let us just fucking rest.


End file.
